The more inspiring dystopia

I’ll have to disagree with Christopher Taylor’s assertion in his July 14 letter, “Alternative muse for video game,” that P.D. James’ novel “Children of Men” would have been a more inspiring dystopian novel for the recently released video game “The Last of Us” than would Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.”

Actually James’ novel would more likely alarm anyone concerned with Japan’s declining birthrate, nearly the lowest among all the Group of Eight nations. Many of Japan’s leaders are more than a little alarmed. One Cabinet minister reminded women six years ago that they were basically “baby-making machines.”

In “Children of Men,” the human race has simply stopped reproducing. Women have absolutely stopped having babies or are unable to become pregnant. However, there are no flesh-eating “zombies” in the novel by James.

So I think the novel “The Road” was the best inspiration for the apocalyptic video game, since both are about the desperate survival of the last remaining humans in a world devastated by some Earth-shattering catastrophe. It does help if the reader has some shard of an imagination left intact. McCarthy failed to include any manga-style graphics. He’s old school.

Again, it is lamentable that we live in an age where great literature is said to inspire zombie-killing video games.

robert mckinney

otaru, hokkaido

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.